Abstract
The Dunedin study is one of two birth cohort studies commenced in New Zealand in the 1970s. One thousand and thirty-seven babies born in the 12 months from 1 April 1972 were recruited and followed up every 2 years from 3 to 15 years and then at 18 and 21 years. A remarkable feature of the study is that 97.3% of the 1020 surviving subjects were included in the 21 years' follow-up. Interestingly, six of the 17 deaths were motor vehicle related and there was one suicide. This book is a summary of the hundreds, some 555 in all, of papers that have arisen from the study. The study covered many areas of health and development including asthma, blood pressure, injuries, otitis media and dental health. This review will concentrate on aspects particularly relevant to mental health. Of particular relevance are the chapters on Intellectual Performance (chapter 3), Mental Health (9), Delinquency (10), Substance Use (11), Alcohol Use (12), Sexual Behaviour (13) and Families and Parenting (15).
From child to adult is full of fascinating details such as ‘36% had a strong attachment to an object at age three which declined to 20% at age five and 13% at age seven’ (p.30). Interestingly, this section goes on to say that children who had such an attachment only differed from their peers in being from more affluent families and being more likely to have a sucking habit. High scores on the temperamental factor ‘lack of control’ at 3 and 5 years were found to correlate with externalising behaviour problems in adolescence. At age 5, mothers were asked whether their child was seeing a doctor or whether she would like to see a doctor. Almost 40% indicated ‘yes’, upper respiratory problems being most common closely followed by behaviour and speech problems.
Much of the chapter on mental health provides confirmatory data to support information that has been part of the child and adolescent psychiatry lexicon for many years. For example, the predominance of boys among those identified in the preado-lescent years and the increase in internalising problems among adolescent girls are well documented. By age 18 years, 37% of the sample had either a current or past history of a disorder that met the DSM-III-R criteria.
In the area of delinquency, the authors comment that ‘the official arrest statistics merely reflect the tip of the deviation iceberg…. Actual rates of illegal behaviour soar so high during adolescence that participation in delinquency appears to be a normal part of teen life’ (p. 164). It is clear that adolescence-limited delinquency is common whereas life-course persistent offenders are relatively rare. The life-course group differed from the adolescence-limited group and the non-delinquent group in having more family problems, more reading difficulty, higher rates of hyperactivity and attentional problems, lower self-esteem and greater problems with peer relations. It is suggested that the male-female difference in rates of delinquency can be explained, at least in part, by the greater rates of many of the predisposing factors among males. Affiliation with antisocial boys also seems to be an important factor in the origins of antisocial behaviour in girls.
The chapters on alcohol and substance use document the increasing prevalence of substance use and polysubstance use with increasing age. It also highlights the fact that alcohol and tobacco continue to be the substances of choice by young people despite the publicity surrounding the use of cannabis and other drugs.
In short, this book provides an excellent, well-written overview of one of the leading longitudinal studies of child development through to early adulthood. As such, it is an outstanding index to the vast number of publications that have emanated from the study. A particular strength of this study is the emphasis placed on psychosocial variables from its inception. Its major shortcomings are the lack of detail in each area of the study and the relatively high cost of the book as an overview. However, it will be a valuable reference book for libraries and students of child development for many years to come.